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You think the recession is the problem? It's not. Recessions come and go. The problem is that we have so little latitude for getting out of this one because Republicans squandered the budget surplus inherited from the Clinton administration on tax cuts for the wealthy, two foreign wars, and a new Medicare drug benefit that was never paid for.
The Bush tax cuts remain the single greatest component of the structural deficit.
So obamas 6 trillion added to the debt is not obamas doing
Here we go again Obama had the Super majority for HC other legislations and ignored the economy for his pet peave against those evil insurance companies.
Nonsense. Obama had a super majority for exactly 24 working days, period.
To define terms, a Filibuster-Proof Majority or Super Majority is the number of votes required to overcome a filibuster in the Senate. According to current Senate rules, 60 votes are required to overcome a filibuster.
Here is a time-line of the events after the 2008 election:
1. BALANCE BEFORE THE ELECTION. In 2007 – 2008 the balance in the Senate was 51-49 in favor of the Democrats. On top of that, there was a Republican president who would likely veto any legislation the Republicans didn’t like. Not exactly a super majority.
2. BIG GAIN IN 2008, BUT STILL NO SUPER MAJORITY. Coming out the 2008 election, the Democrats made big gains, but they didn’t immediately get a Super Majority. The Minnesota Senate race required a recount and was not undecided for more than six months. During that time, Norm Coleman was still sitting in the Senate and the Balance 59-41, still not a Super Majority.
3. KENNEDY GRAVELY ILL. Teddy Kennedy casts his last vote in April and leaves Washington for good around the first of May. Technically he could come back to Washington vote on a pressing issue, but in actual fact, he never returns, even to vote on the Sotomayor confirmation. That leaves the balance in the Senate 58-41, two votes away from a super majority.
4. STILL NO SUPER MAJORITY. In July, Al Frankin was finally declared the winner and was sworn in on July 7th, 2009, so the Democrats finally had a Super Majority of 60-40 six and one-half months into the year. However, by this point, Kennedy was unable to return to Washington even to participate in the Health Care debate, so it was only a technical super majority because Kennedy could no longer vote and the Senate does not allow proxies. Now the actual actual balance of voting members is 59-40 not enough to overcome a Republican filibuster.
5. SENATE IS IN RECESS. Even if Kennedy were able to vote, the Senate went into summer recess three weeks later, from August 7th to September 8th.
6. KENNEDY DIES. Six weeks later, on Aug 26, 2009 Teddy Kennedy died, putting the balance at 59-40. Now the Democrats don’t even have technical super majority.
7. FINALLY, A SUPER MAJORITY! Kennedy’s replacement was sworn in on September 25, 2009, finally making the majority 60-40, just enough for a super majority.
8. SENATE ADJOURNS. However the Senate adjourned for the year on October 9th, only providing 11 working days of super majority, from September 25th to October 9th.
8. SCOTT BROWN ELECTED. Scott Brown was elected in November of 2009. The Senate was not in session during November and December of 2009. The Senate was in session for 10 days in January, but Scott Brown was sworn into office on February 4th, so the Democrats only had 13 days of super majority in 2010.
Summary: The Democrats only had 24 days of Super Majority between 2008 and 2010.
Certainly no closer than it deserved. It is a second great depression waiting to be born.
I believe that the economic cycle caused the recession... initiated by a real estate bubble. I further believe that it was exacerbated by Bush's squandering of the inherited budget surplus, and has been deliberately prolonged by a Republican congress intent on denying this president a second term.
I agree the recession was caused by the real estate bubble but I think you'll find it difficult to link Bush to the "Great Recession." Most economists agree that mortgage backed securities and questionable lending practices were to blame. That being said, Clinton with bi-partisan support lead the repeal of Glass-Steagall which was a depression era tool used esentially to break up "too big to fail." This also prevented mortgage and commerical entities from bonding together and speculating junk bonds and placing wagers on mutant packaged mortgage backed securities.
Now...all that is dandy until you have people defaulting on their mortgages left right and center. Insert the second primary cause....the "ramp up" of the Community Reinvestment Act. The CRA maintained that banks engaged in discriminatory lending practices by redlining certain communities. This law was fairly innocuous at it's inception under Carter but Clinton felt it was an injustice therefore he put some gasoline in the bill and made it so that banks couldn't redline effectively thus esentially making it illegal to not lend in these areas. So...combine the two...we have repealed the regulatory framework that prevented speculation and a bill that requires (almost mandates) bad loans. While I agree Bush was an idiot and borderline Keynesian towards the end of his tenure...Bill Clinton's policies were the chief causes of one of the worst recessions since the 30's. Yet he rides the golden train of the dot com bubble under the guise of effecively managing the economy.
Believe me...I do some contract work with the OCC and you should have SEEN the loans under CRA........laughable.
Stop turning down job bills because of rigid bat **** crazy Dem ideology (like abortion language) and the country would have had improvement
Republican poison pills in legislation are the Republican's fault, not the Democrat's.
This is, of course in contrast to the several offers Democrats made on the budget, in some cases even accepting the Republican top lines completely... and the Republicans walked away.
Quote:
Originally Posted by A&M_Indie_08
It is the Dems fault here....no matter how badly you fail to see with blinders on
You feel a little lonely out there making that claim? You should.
So obamas 6 trillion added to the debt is not obamas doing
Some of it is sure. But since most of what he is actually responsible for is not the result of the structural deficit, so what? Bush's debt is the gift that keeps on giving. It is hard baked into the numbers and the direct result of his policies... and continues to drive most of the debt that has been added since Obama's election.
In other words... as you whine about the "$6 trillion" in debt that will have been added during Obama's first term, keep in mind that more than half of it still belongs to Bush.
Last edited by HistorianDude; 09-19-2012 at 09:24 AM..
Nope. If Obama is elected, in 2016, when the UE is 8.5% and inflation is rampant, the Democrats will blame George Bush.
Actually, you are correct. I would still blame George Bush and the Republicans as they are the root causes of America's problems today. It may a take a generation or more to fix all the damage Bush and the Republicans caused America. It's not deflecting from Obama's record, it's pointing attention to the root cause of the problems.
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Obama had the Super majority for HC other legislations and ignored the economy for his pet peave against those evil insurance companies.
